


Mack The Knife

by jaded_jane



Series: What Could Have Been [4]
Category: Big Time Rush (Band)
Genre: Birthday Dinner, Gen, Gym, Life Choices, Mentally, Surprises, not physically, screwing with people, yet - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 14:02:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8893429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaded_jane/pseuds/jaded_jane
Summary: Logan crashes James' birthday dinner; James fucks with him as a result.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Do I still need to say it? Unbeta'd.

When Alec first mentions he’ll be getting together with James for a late birthday dinner, Logan doesn’t pause with his chin-ups, simply says, “Sounds cool, man. Say hi for me” and continues on with his workout. “Treadmill next?”

It used to be nothing but endless days of Logan and James together– laughing, performing, living a great life; sometimes Carlos and Kendall would be present for these things, sometimes not. He can’t remember the last time he spent any significant time with this best friend, not that he can comfortably refer to James as such. 

Not anymore.

It’d be great to see James again, he thinks the next day and the notion gets stuck on a loop, feeding the quietly growing desire to make it reality. 

Four days after Alec drops the James bomb, Logan realizes his thoughts have become a problem when she notices him lost in a daydream and asks what’s had his attention. He can’t tell her the truth– she has a meltdown any time James’ name is brought up thanks to a whiskey-soaked night where Logan may or may not have confessed to trying to start something with James about a year ago. 

His motivation for spilling that secret remains unclear– especially to him– but ever since, she’s insisted he stay away from James. As if James would try to steal Logan from her.

Or Logan would forget she exists.

He says something about working on memorizing his lines for a movie that has seen so much backburner time, it’s stone cold. Not that she knows that either. She buys it, thankfully, going back to whatever she was doing and Logan does the same, James crowding his brain and taking over his day.

***

In the midst of leg curls a week later, Logan bites the bullet, asking, “How’s James doing?” and feels unexplainable relief when Alec replies they haven’t met up yet, then pain when Alec adds more weight. He quits talking, concentrating on getting through the leg portion of his routine, stopping mere seconds later when Alec casually invites Logan along.

“You forgot that I actually know you, Henderson. If you acknowledge something more than once, it’s important to you. Come to dinner. I know James would love to catch up.”

Logan wants to deny this observation for all its worth, but he doesn’t want the invite to be rescinded. He counts out the last of his repetitions with renewed energy and sits up. “When is it?” he wonders aloud and waits with baited breath for Alec’s answer, mentally working out what he can tell her so he doesn’t lie but doesn’t have all the drama the complete truth would bring either. 

***

Logan spends five minutes messing with his hair using the rearview mirror after parking his car. He sighs, grabbing a hat from the back seat and mentally cursing Alec for rushing him out the door following his post work-out shower. He plunks the headwear over his still damp, in-desperate-need-of-a-cut hair while climbing out of his car.

He peers past his reflection in the restaurant’s windows and sees James laughing with Alec. Logan assumes James is being told of the change in number of guests for tonight’s dinner and has the sudden worry that maybe Alec was wrong, and Logan won’t be welcome. He takes a deep breath and heads for the building anyway.

Within feet of the front door, Logan pulls his phone from his back pocket and pretends to be reading text messages when he walks in. If it turns out James doesn’t want him there, he can fake an emergency and flee.

“Logie bear!”

Logan grimaces even as relief courses through his body when he hears the nickname shouted out. He arrives at the table and James stands, pulling him in for a bone-crushing hug. 

“Missed you,” James says lowly into Logan’s ear as he steps back, taking a long look at Logan.

Logan ducks his head and smiles at the floor, pleased his fear appears to be groundless. “Happy birthday, dude. Hope you don’t mind me crashing your date with Alec. He wants me to chaperone.”

James throws his head back and laughs. “I could be so lucky. If you’re coming from training, you need to sit your ass down and have some protein, pronto.” James yanks out the chair to his left and pushes him into it. “I’m assuming you’ll be having a sirloin?”

Logan sets down his phone and picks up a menu, if only to look at something other than James’ delighted grin. “Yes, but the question is– what size?”

***

“Think I can talk the waitress into taking a picture of us? Who knows when I’ll see you again.” 

Logan is aware James can talk women into nearly anything. All he has to do is look at them and smile. It’s a trick Logan has employed a time or two with more or less the same success. “You know that can’t happen,” he reminds James.

James shoots him an unreadable look before flagging down their waitress. “Um, excuse me. Kellie, was it?”

A smiling woman appears at James’ side. “It is. Can I get you gentlemen something else?” 

“James, don’t,” Logan quietly begs, realizing the possibility of unwanted drama in his future just rose exponentially. He watches Kellie’s eyes scan the hard wood table between herself and the three guys around it, noting nothing seems to need refills, other than possibly some water, and allows his eyes drift to James, who’s looking straight at him. 

He meets James’ gaze head on and feels swallowed whole by the hazel orbs trained on him. Reluctantly, he acquiesces to James’ spoken and unspoken request, and nods minutely; maybe he can convince James to keep the photo to himself.

“Is there something wrong with the dessert?” the waitress tries again, smile steadily slipping from her face. The ice cream she put down minutes prior, remains untouched since James’ entire focus has been elsewhere.

Alec is the one who finally speaks up. “Would you mind taking our picture? We’re celebrating this dork’s birthday,” he tells her as he motions towards James who is already sliding closer to Logan. 

Logan attempts to ignore the body heat radiating from James, instead listening to Alec explain the photo app on his phone to the waitress, wanting this moment to be both over immediately and last forever. The physical closeness is more familiar than he’s willing to admit. 

And definitely more wanted.

Alec suddenly appears at Logan’s other side, pulling Logan from his memories, and crouching down to fit in the frame as the waitress is urging them to smile. 

Smiling on command may be second nature for him and James, but when fingers slide along his neck, Logan knows it’s a reserved but genuine smile that shows despite his earlier protesting of letting this be done. Figuring he’s in for a penny, in for a pound, he reaches out, pulling James in and relishing in the pure joy he feels in that instant.

It might be the last when she gets ahold of him.

Kellie returns the phone after snapping half a dozen photos– Logan making a different face in each one– inquiring again if they need anything else before tending to nearby tables.

Alec stands, stretching. “This has been fun, but I’ve got an early training session tomorrow. Goodnight, guys. Happy birthday, James.” 

Logan says goodbye to Alec and heads to the bathroom, desperate to be alone for a minute or two to pull his thoughts together. It’s been months since he was last alone with James, and it shouldn’t be awkward, but it is.

She made sure of that.

Taking a deep breath, he exits the restroom, ready to face whatever is coming his way.

James is toying with his dessert when Logan arrives back at the table. “Since when do you take fashion cues from Smokey the Bear?” he queries, delivering an uncharacteristic smirk around the spoon between his lips as he samples his ice cream.

Logan steals the bowl, grabbing his own spoon off the table. “Right about the time you stopped being ‘lactose less-tolerant’. You don’t mind me finishing this, do you?” Logan eats it slowly, waiting for James to start a real conversation.

“Where does she think you are?” James eventually asks, spinning all sorts of things in circles on the table’s polished surface.

Logan stares hard at the wood table in front of them. “I told her I was meeting up with Alec. Which I did.” His eyes move over to the area where James continues to fidget. “Can you stop with– hey! That’s my phone! Give it back,” he complains as James holds it up out of Logan’s reach.

“Team Top Shelf for the win.” James snorts in amusement at his own joke. “She’s gonna know real soon that he wasn’t the only one you were with.” He slides his own phone over to Logan so he can see James uploaded their pic to Instagram and captioned it using the word date. 

So much for keeping this quiet.

Logan leans back and covers his eyes, trying to block out the unrestrained happiness he can see in James in the photo. He said date when he greeted James. Part of him knew from the beginning this is how it would end. 

The clack of his phone being placed back on the table in front of him causes Logan to drop his hands and eye James warily. “Why?”

James shrugs. “Alec sent me the pictures; I just did what I always do with moments I want to remember.” He pauses to retrieve his phone. “I also made a minor adjustment to something in your phone.”

Logan snatches up his phone, only to put it back down when James begins to chuckle. “I hate you,” he whines, which makes James guffaw. “How’s the music coming?” he asks to get away from the current topic.

James quiets down. “I’m doing some cool stuff with Unlike Pluto. Got more stuff in the works. How about you?”

It’s Logan’s turn to shrug, unwilling to tell James how lost he’s been, musically and otherwise. “I’ve been thinking of calling up Nick to see if he’s got some free time. I just don’t…” he trails off, unsure how to finish the sentence.

“You know you can always come to me if you want help with the music thing, right?”

Logan bobs his head, gratitude overwhelming him. “I know; thanks.”

“Why won’t she let you spend time with me?”

Stunned silence falls over the table. Logan opens his mouth and closes it a few times before he manages a single word. “How?”

James blows out an exasperated breath. “Come on, Logan. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out she’s got you by the short and curlies. Kendall says you’ve become his second shadow and Carlos sees you all the time, but whenever I call, you always have an excuse why you can’t go out. I know we’re good. If we weren’t, you wouldn’t be here now; you would’ve escaped when Alec left.”

Logan chances a glance at James. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’ll call me when you decide to seriously start your solo career.”

A small, crooked grin spreads across Logan’s face. “I will.”

“And say you’ll call me when you figure out what I changed in your phone,” challenges James.

Logan’s dimples deepen, “Oh, I definitely will. Be prepared for payback.”

James’ laugh rings through Logan’s whole body. “I look forward to it.”

***

“I still have no idea what he did, Alec. I’ve been through the entire thing twice! What could he have done? Did he not-”

Alec rolls his eyes for the fourth time in the last twenty minutes of Logan’s complaints and interrupts, “Why don’t you call him and ask what he did?” 

“I can’t do that. That’s admitting defeat!” A faint sound snatches Logan’s attention and he cocks his head, straining to catch it again. “What is that sound?”

Alec lifts his head from his hands where it had fallen during Logan’s rant. “It sounds like it’s coming from your ass,” he says tiredly. “Is that ‘Mack the Knife’?”

“She’s not a-”

Alec places his head back in his hands. “The ringtone, Logan. It’s an old Bobby Darin song. ‘Mack the Knife’,” he mumbles. “Go away and answer your ass.”

Logan dashes out of Alec’s office, music going with him. He pulls his cell from his pocket and double-checks the display in case James was feeling vengeful that day. “You’re hysterical,” he says in lieu of a hello.

“What? I got tired of waiting. Oh, you mean the new ringtone? You gotta admit, it’s pretty clever,” James crows. 

“I’m getting you back, Maslow. I don’t know when and I don’t know how, but it’ll happen. You probably should start looking over your shoulder.” The words are supposed to be a teasing threat, but it sounds more like provocative promise.

“I’ll be waiting.”


End file.
